I am going to start off by stating up front that I love Mary Higgins Clark as an author. I love the richness and intelligence of her prose. After reading some authors I find her writing style refreshingly smart and crisp. I feel that she assumes the reader has the intelligence to deal with vocabulary and sentence structure. I also like her ability to tell a story without relying on profanity or sex. I appreciate all these qualities as a reader.

I just finished her newest book, Daddy’s Gone A Hunting. Just like her previous novels, this one is a masterpiece of so many tangled strands that weave together in one complex tapestry that reveals just how connected the separate stories are. It is a formula that she has used time and again very successfully. This time is no exception.

The plot centers itself around a father, his two grown daughters, and their relationships, both personal and business. Things are looking black for Kate when she is discovered injured, at the scene of an arson. As she lays in a coma, under the watchful care of her sister Hannah, fire marshalls try to uncover the truth.

Mary Higgins Clark deftly weaves this story together, leaving clues at intervals, to the climax when you are hoping in your heart that the villain is stopped in time. I actually figured out “who done it” by then, more or less. But I will admit that I didn’t put all the clues together to figure out the motive behind Tracy Sloan’s disappearance 28 years earlier.

As with most, if not all, of her novels, Mary Higgins Clark puts a touch of romance into her story. I particularly like this about her. Her characters are struggling through dark times, and yet she manages to give the good guys a little bit of hope through that promise of a better future with someone to love.

Daddy’s Gone A Hunting is the book for you if you love to hunt for clues!